May Ducks Corbyn Questions Over Trump Travel Ban

British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Britain's House of Commons is to vote on a bill Wednesday authorizing Prime Minister Theresa May to start European Union exit talks the first major test of whether lawmakers will try to impede the government's Brexit plans. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Theresa May has refused to reveal whether the White House gave her advance notice of Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban.

The Prime Minister ducked the issue when challenged by Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Question Time over the restrictions on refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.

A full five days since the Presidential executive order was issued, May finally declared for the first time that the US crackdown was “divisive and wrong”.

But she side-stepped the central issue of whether she had been told about it during her visit to Washington last week.

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Jeremy Corbyn

Corbyn quizzed May on whether she had any prior knowledge of the move, and whether she had objected to it in any way to the new US President or his team.

May replied: “If he’s asking me whether I had advance notice of the ban on refugees, the answer is no. If he’s asking me if I had advanced notice that the executive order could affect British citizens, the answer is no.

“If he’s asking if I had advanced notice of the travel restrictions, the answer is we all did, because President Trump said he would do this in his election campaign.”

Her reply that “we all” knew about the planned ban avoided the specific issue of whether she had been told about it by Trump or his aides.

When pushed further after PMQs, Downing Street refused to elaborate on what exactly the PM had been made aware of in the White House.

The PM has faced intense criticism for refusing to condemn the Trump ban since it was announced on Friday, just hours after she flew out of Washington.

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On Saturday, after initially refusing to answer, she said only that the issue was a matter “for the United States”.